Category Archives: Mario

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Watch this video of Russian figure skating duo Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, who won a silver medal at the World Figure Skating Championships this past weekend. The competition was supposed to take place in Japan, but it got moved to Russia after the earthquake.

I would really like to go to this new parkour facility in LA called the Tempest Freerunning Academy. Parkour is so amazing (I’ve trained a couple times with a Bay area group–so fun!); but perhaps the best thing about this place is that you can jump around in a real Mario World.

Contrary to what you might think based on the last few posts, this blog is not exclusively about Super Mario Brothers.

Instead of doing what I’m supposed to be doing on the Internet, I’ve been surfing YouTube for Mario theme song instrumentals for the past hour. Love this one of a guy playing the flute + beatboxing…

But! This song is by far my favorite. Is it called Donuts? It’s so lovely on the piano. If you can play this song for me, please video tape it and I’ll post it on TokyoMango. So far I only know two people who can play it–my good friend Joe Sabia and The Mario Piano Guy (who seems to have erased himself from the Interwebs). Thanks.

Andreas Heikaus created this awesome re-visualization of Super Mario Bros. He writes:

This video was part of my Bachelor thesis at the University of Applied science and art Hannover. The Super Mario Bros. game, released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, is not longer bound to the television size and get interactive with a new environment. The emphasis of my thesis is on the matchmoving work. It is the process of matching CG elements into live-action footage.

In this video, violinist Teppei Okada plays the soundtrack to a real time Mario game live on his instrument. This — as do most creative geeky Japanese videos — was first made popular on Nico Nico Douga. I wonder if he coordinated the moves with the person who’s playing the game. Either way, it’s pretty impressive.

Wow, I just noticed that my last three posts are all Mario-related. Yes, I also have a category specifically reserved for Mario posts. I don’t know why I like him so much. He seems like a fun guy to know.

Takara Tomy’s coming out with a new toy on June 19: little RC Mario Karts! The controller has actual items you can chuck at other players, like the green shell, red shell, and banana — if you chuck a banana, for example, an IR light comes out of your player’s butt and anyone hit with hit will crash off course.

After all these years, I finally know how Mario died &mdash I guess he just couldn’t make it in the real world. This short film, by the way, was nominated for Best Comedy in the YouTube video awards in 2007.

I am also the founder of The Tofu Project, a boutique program that helps Japanese entrepreneurs and creators think deeper, tell better stories, and go out into the world in a much bigger way. We work with companies like Mixi, Japan Airlines, and Salesforce.com.

Sometimes I try to explain Japanese culture on CNN, BBC, CBC, WSJ, ABC (so many acronyms!) or in person at places like the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, ETech, and Ignite!